


Time to Give

by falindis



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bull's horns are an erogenic zone, Drinking Games, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Inquisition plays Never Have I Ever, Mature due to adult language, Multi, No smut or that sort involved, Sera overshares everything, Sharing a Bed, Solas (Dragon Age) Bashing, Solas (Dragon Age) is an Egg, Starts of happy but ends kind of sad, The Commander keeps his clothes on, open flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:02:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falindis/pseuds/falindis
Summary: After the defeat of Corypheus, the Inquisition gathers together for a celebration in form of food, drink and drinking games. Lavellan, however, has a hard time having fun due to the departure of Solas. Cullen decides to offer her comfort.
Relationships: Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus, Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford, Lavellan/Solas (Dragon Age), Leliana/Warden (Dragon Age)
Kudos: 7





	Time to Give

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday fic written for a friend, featuring most of the Inquisition just being happy and fooling around in Skyhold, although with a tiny twist of hurt/comfort too. Hope you enjoy! (psst bioware if ur reading this - give me da4)

The main hall of Skyhold was filled with people.  
  
A chatter of a hundred voices rang out, accompanied by the clatter of cutlery, the stomping of feet and the rumbling of laughter. Wherever one looked, they could see expressions of laughter and gratitude. They had, after all, won.  
  
Inquisitor Lavellan stood in the shadows of the hallway, taking in the sight before entering the room. Although she had walked through these same halls a thousand times, they suddenly seemed alien to her. Perhaps it was because she herself had changed as well. To those before her she had been the Herald of Andraste, the gift sent from heavens to save the world from Corypheus. Although she herself had never believed that, she had allowed others to keep the faith if it helped them to keep on fighting.  
  
And now that task was done. Now with Corypheus gone, _who_ was she anymore? She no longer felt like the innocent Dalish elf who had attended the Conclave. Too much had happened after that. But she was not a god either.  
  
Lavellan took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It was time.  
  
She stepped out of the shadows, and the whole room fell silent.  
  
Lavellan felt a blush creep up on her face. She felt the pressure to do something, to say something – anything except stand there and do nothing. But there she was, simply frozen in place, unable to do naught but stare.  
  
And then, she heard a cry from the table on the right:  
  
_“Inquisitor!”_  
  
Lavellan turned her head. It was Varric, holding out a goblet of _something_ towards her direction – ale, probably, since it was Varric, after all. “What took you so long?”  
  
Lavellan was just about to answer, when other consecutive cries ran out.  
  
“Inquisitor! So good to see you!” Josephine, well-dressed as always, sitting aristocratically at the end of the table.  
  
“Hey, boss”, the Iron Bull, smiling as always, Dorian at his side. “Come and drink with us!”  
  
“We’ve missed you, friend”, Cassandra said, patting an empty spot beside her. Although Lavellan was not one for crying, she felt unexpected tears sting her eyes. She no longer felt the pressure to do or say anything. The main hall seemed suddenly smaller, reduced to only the single table that was her friends. Almost everyone was there, besides the usual suspects of Vivienne and Cole – the former raised a glass at the Inquisitor from another corner of the hall, where she was attending to formal duties. From the latter’s whereabouts Lavellan had no idea, but she expected that he would turn up at one point or another.  
  
Lavellan found her eyes scanning for a third missing figure in the room, one with pointed ears and a shaved head, but to no avail. Lavellan scolded herself. She could not think of him now. She simply wiped her tears on the back of her hand and took her appointed seat between Cassandra and Dorian.  
  
“Just in the nick of time”, Dorian said. “Varric was just about to tell a story!”  
  
Lavellan smiled. “Sounds like Varric to me.”  
  
“Actually I wasn’t thinking of a story this time”, Varric said from the other end of the table. “More of a game.”  
  
“Ooh”, Sera clapped her hands. She was seated diagonally to the left from Lavellan. “Does it involve taking our clothes off?”  
  
Cullen, who was sipping wine between Varric and Blackwall, almost snorted it from his nose. Varric’s mouth tilted in a crooked grin. They all still remembered the Commander’s rather… _bare_ performance from their latest game of Wicked Grace. He – or rather his buttocks – had been the talk of Skyhold for weeks.  
  
“I think we would prefer to keep them on this time, Sera”, Cassandra said with amusement. “Unless we wish to blind all of Skyhold.”  
  
Cullen frowned. “Blind? Now wait a minute—”  
  
“Very well!” Varric clapped his hands together. “Let’s start. So, this game is called _Never have I ever_. The rules are simple. One at a time everyone of us will say a thing that they have never done. Those who have done it will have to take a sip out of their drink.” On Lavellan’s side, Iron Bull was already pouring her one. “Understood?”  
  
“Piece of cake!” Sera threw her legs on the table, chewing on a piece of chicken. Josephine gave her a condemning stare. She undoubtedly thought about all the cleaning she needed to do tomorrow.  
  
“I’ll start”, Varric continued. “Never have I ever… shot a friend.”  
  
That resulted in several strange looks. Sera was the only one who drank – not surprising. Dorian raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Does a shot from a staff count?”  
  
“If you think of it as a shot”, Varric shrugged.  
  
Dorian cackled, and then drank.  
  
“Sera doesn’t surprise me, but _Dorian”_ , Josephine pondered. “May I ask how?”  
  
“He used to be a friend, but then he got into blood magic.”  
  
“Oh”, Josephine’s smile vanished.  
  
“Classic Tevinter”, Sera snorted. “Is it my turn already?”  
  
“Not yet”, Varric chided, turning towards Cullen. “Commander.”  
  
Cullen cleared his throat. “Never have I ever… been to Tevinter.”  
  
“Booo!” Sera shouted. “Boring!”  
  
“That is a bit boring indeed”, Leliana interjected from between Josephine and Sera. “Spice it up a bit.”  
  
Cullen glared at her from beneath his eyebrows. “You asked for it. Never have I ever… slept with a co-worker.”  
  
Leliana chuckled, then drank – unsurprisingly, since all knew of her relationship with the Hero of Ferelden. She was followed by the usual suspects of Sera, Dorian and Iron Bull – and to Lavellan’s own shame and sadness, herself.  
  
“I am surprised you are not drinking, Varric”, Leliana said. “What about you and Bianca?”  
  
Varric waved his hand. “Our relationship is strictly professional.”  
  
Leliana didn’t appear very convinced.  
  
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Varric laughed, pointing to his left. “We have two suspects right here.”  
  
Iron Bull let out a rumbling laugh, setting his hand on Dorian’s shoulder. “Don’t blame me. You’d fuck him too, wouldn’t you?”  
  
Varric almost choked on his ale. “Him? Sorry. I am strictly dwarf-sexual.”  
  
Dorian’s lips curled into a frown, although all knew it to be pretense. Iron Bull leaned over him and slided his hands down to his lover’s hips. “Don’t be sad, _kadan._ You still have the finest ass in all of Thedas.”  
  
Dorian hummed in anticipation. “Oh, I am going to _ravish_ you.”  
  
Most of the group turned their eyes then, cheeks burning, but Sera was not one of them. She was staring intently at the Bull’s horns, unblinking.  
  
“So, I was wondering. Those… things of yours. Do you ever use them for… kinky shit?”  
  
Bull laughed so loud that half of the hall went silent and glared at him. “You surely speak your mind, Sera.”  
  
“I am not sure if this should be addressed in public”, Blackwall noted.  
  
Bull snickered. “Why not? Sex is a natural part of life. Us Qun don’t think about it as… _ceremoniously_ as the rest of you. Feelings and carnal pleasure are entirely different dimensions. They do not have to mix with each other.”  
  
Sera simply blinked. “But do you use them for kinky stuff?”  
  
“You mean does Dorian ride on my horn? Blow on it? Do I impale him with it?”  
  
Cullen made a visible expression of discomfort. Apparently, there were some images in his head that he could not easily discard.  
  
“No”, Bull continued. “That would be far too painful. But for some qunari the horns do act as an erogenous zone, and touching them causes pleasure.”  
  
“Can I touch them?”  
  
“Gods, Sera!” Dorian called out. “You just can’t ask to touch a qunari’s horns! That’s like asking your friend whether you could touch their breasts!”  
  
Sera didn’t seem to see the issue there. “What? I touch breasts all the time.”  
  
Cassandra buried her head in her hands.  
  
“So, onto the next topic”, Varric noted. “Blackwall.”  
  
“Never have I ever… lost my clothes in a card game.”  
  
“Well that’s oddly specific”, Cullen grunted as he took a sip from his drink. Along with Sera, of course. And Leliana – although it was hardly surprising, considering her colorful past.  
  
“My turn!” Sera yelled, pounding her goblet on the table so hard that wine spilled. “Never have I ever… fallen in love with the wrong person.”  
  
Lavellan froze. Her first reaction was to laugh, along with many in the table, for it was certainly an unexpected choice for Sera – she could have always gone for a stranger option, considering how many shenanigans she was constantly up to. But from all the possible options she went for this one.  
  
Lavellan bowed her head in shame, and drunk. She did not even pay attention to who else did. For a moment she was simply lost in a fog. The turn went on to Leliana – _never have I ever passed out someplace inappropriate – then Josephine – never have I ever had sex where I was not supposed to have it._ The latter resulted into some amusing quizzing among the party of where the strange acts had taken place.  
  
“Deep roads”, Leliana replied.  
  
“On top of a dragon corpse”, grinned Iron Bull.  
  
“Tree”, grunted Blackwall.  
  
“What?” said Sera. “I don’t remember where I’ve done it and where not. Don’t look at me!”  
  
And so the game went on to Cassandra, but that turn too went by in a fog. It was only when Lavellan felt Cassandra tap on her shoulder that her thoughts somewhat clarified, and suddenly the hall seemed awfully loud.  
  
“Inquisitor”, Cassandra said. “Your turn.”  
  
Lavellan blinked. “Oh. I’m sorry.”  
  
She paused for a bit. Tried to think. But for several reasons she found that she could not focus on the game anymore. In her thoughts she simply returned to a misty pond in the mountains around Skyhold, on cool hands on her face and softly spoken words in the wind.  
  
_You have a rare and marvelous spirit. In another world…_  
  
But not here.  
  
“Inquisitor”, Cassandra repeated. “Is everything alright?”  
  
Lavellan forced a smile upon her face. “Yes. I was simply… lost in thought.”  
  
Cassandra frowned. “This is about _him_ , isn’t it?”  
  
“About who?” Sera asked. “I don’t get it.”  
  
“Hot tip, Buttercup”, Varric said, “Starts and ends with an S.”  
  
“Sera?”  
  
Dorian snorted. “You don’t end with S.”  
  
“Sassandra? Sullen?”  
  
“Neither start with an S, you goofball”, Dorian continued.  
  
Sera sulked for a minute. Then the realization seemed to hit her.  
  
“That _fucking_ egg!” she suddenly shouted, whipping out a knife and striking it through the table. “Tell me where he is, and I’ll make him into an omelet!”  
  
Lavellan smiled sadly, trying to come up with a reply, but she could not. So Dorian did it in her stead.  
  
“That’s the thing”, Dorian replied. “No-one knows where he is.”  
  
“Well couldn’t we hunt him down? We’re the damn Inquisition! The heroes! Finding one egg shouldn’t be so damn difficult! I’ll spot his shiny head from a mile away!”  
  
“Leave it be, Sera”, Cullen chided. “She does not want to talk about it.”  
  
Varric seemed to agree. He crossed his hands and nodded. “Perhaps we should consider changing the activity. What about some cards?”  
  
That was something many of the group seemed to agree on. Thus they went and played a few rounds, of simple card games with no stakes, so there was no fear of anyone losing their dignity this time. At some point of their card game Cole had decided to mysteriously pop up, taking a seat in between Josephine and Leliana, and he won most of the games with an almost uncanny intuition. And as soon as he had arrived, he disappeared, leaving everyone even more confused than they were before.  
  
For the rest of the night Lavellan sat and drank and laughed with the others, trying to enjoy the night the best as she could, but after everything, found that she could not. So the hours dragged on, each of their companions leaving one at a time – Josephine and Cassandra retired first, soon followed by Blackwall and Leliana, then Dorian and Iron Bull. In the end only Lavellan, Sera, Cullen and Varric were left, and Sera was so drunk that no-one understood her anymore. Eventually she passed out under the table, and Varric decided it was time for him to go as well.  
  
“Goodnight, Curly”, he said to Cullen, “Inquisitor.”  
  
Lavellan bowed her head and smiled, turning her gaze towards Cullen. The Commander looked tired, and frankly, Lavellan was surprised that he had stayed up so long. Usually he was among the first to leave.  
  
“What a night”, Lavellan noted. “Don’t you think?”  
  
Cullen nodded, but didn’t say anything. They simply sat in silence for a moment.  
  
“Do you wish to talk about it?” he asked, and Lavellan immediately knew, what the Commander meant. “I am here to listen, if you need an ear.”  
  
Lavellan wished to decline. Perhaps it would simply be easier to let things be. Not to dwell on them on a night like this.  
  
But Cullen had always had a way of reaching into her heart. She admitted that she had considered him – after Solas broke things off – and even asked Cullen about it. Yet the Commander had insisted on keeping things professional. And perhaps he simply believed it to be too early. With Solas still around, it would not be appropriate.  
  
Now he was gone, though. Things were different.  
  
“I…” Lavellan said, struggling to find the words. “Yes.”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Yes. I would appreciate that. But not here.”  
  
“Let me escort you back to your chambers”, Cullen said. “You can tell me on the way.”  
  
So he did. Lavellan allowed Cullen to wrap a hand around her shoulder, and she leaned her head against the Commander’s chest. Although she hadn’t felt drunk while sitting in the table, she did so now. Everything was blurry, spinning. Words spilled from her mouth as easily as water as she opened her heart to Cullen, and the Commander listened. Simply listened, without feeling the need to give her advice or scold her of her bad decisions.  
  
And that sufficed.  
  
Finally they reached her door. She struggled with the lock for a moment, before realizing that it wasn’t locked at all – she simply had tried to pull the door when it needed to be pushed. After getting inside Cullen led her to the bed, turning towards the door.  
  
“I am truly sorry of what happened to you”, Cullen said. “I know how important he was to you.”  
  
Lavellan lied down on the bed and pulled the covers above her. She was still in her full uniform, but didn’t care much for taking it off at the moment. She simply needed to rest.  
  
“There is nothing you need to be sorry about”, Lavellan answered.  
  
Cullen nodded. “Yes. I agree. It is he who should be sorry.”  
  
There was a short silence after that. It appeared to make Cullen extremely awkward.  
  
“I understand if you still need time to grieve… I did not mean to intrude.” Cullen cleared his throat. “I should leave now.”  
  
“No, Cullen”, Lavellan whispered. “Please… stay with me.”  
  
So Cullen stayed. He sat down on the bed next to Lavellan, simply being there: a comforting presence that allowed Lavellan to momentarily forget. Lavellan closed her eyes and reached her hand towards Cullen in the dark, and the Commander squeezed his hand around hers. His other hand drifted slowly to her hair, gently massaging against her scalp.  
  
“We will find him”, Cullen spoke softly before Lavellan fell asleep. “I promise.”  
  
Lavellan held to that promise. But that was reserved for a later day.  
  
Today, this was enough.


End file.
